This is the first acoustic demo of a new song, "A Simple Thing". Might still tweak the lyrics and such, but I felt like it wanted to get out of my brain and onto the internet brain, so here it is. 

One of the things that I think we don't talk about enough as a society is how hard it can be to be a new parent. When my wife and I had our first son, I can honestly say that was the darkest and hardest time of my life. I love the kiddo dearly and he now has a little brother and they're both hilarious. So, it obviously worked out. But, at the time, I couldn't see that at all. I would find myself walking my crying son around the dining room table in the middle of the night and just feeling like my life was over. I felt cut off from my music, from my friends, from my wife, and from myself. And, even worse, there was no going back. I think that was the closest I've ever come to actually feeling suicidal and I don't ever want to get that close again. 

And the thing is that we had it easy. Both our kids have been pretty darn mellow and cooperative and are/were, by baby standards, pretty good sleepers. I literally cannot imagine how people with colicky babies or babies with health issues get through it! HUGE respect and awe for people who do deal with that and get through it. 

So, anyway, this song is kinda coming from that place and, like all songs, isn't 100% "true". I inflated some of it and, even at the worst of it, I didn't feel horrible all the time. But I wanted to try and capture that strange mix of awe and gratefulness and loneliness and horror. 

And let's repeat: I love my kids and my wife and I think I live a pretty charmed life. Just a song, people. Just a song!!